Astrophoto: A Moment of Clarity in the Milky Way

slate.com – There are times in life—perhaps too few, but they exist—when you can try to grasp the Universe, and a piece of understanding settles into your mind like the glow of a billion stars.

This photograph, titled “Moment of Clarity”, by Michael Shainblum is the visualization of that moment. A master of Milky Way and night sky photography, Shainblum took this in Davenport, California during a calm, clear night in 2015. It’s a composite of several exposures (to help reduce the grainy-looking digital noise when capturing faint objects) that reveals the Milky Way, and Shainblum himself silhouetted in the foreground.